Needle-free, painless vaccinations may become a reality thanks to MucoJet

No one likes getting vaccinated but it’s a lot better than getting sick. Putting aside the concerns some have about the supposed risks of vaccines, let’s recognize that they’ve saved millions of children from diseases in the United States alone, according to the Center for Disease Control. So vaccinations are pretty great.

Injections, however, are pretty damn painful, especially for tiny tots who are most at risk of disease. That might change within a decade though thanks to a needle-free device called the MucoJet that make vaccinations practically painless. Developed by researchers in Dorian Liepmann’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley, the pill-sized, 3D-printed device shoots a stream of vaccine into the tissue of the cheek.

1 of 3

UC Berkeley / Stephen McNally

UC Berkeley / Stephen McNally

UC Berkeley / Stephen McNally

To activate the MucoJet, a patient first need to squeeze the device together, creating a reaction and increasing pressure inside. The patient then holds the device on the inside of her cheek for about ten seconds, at which point the pressure breaks a membrane and shoots a concentrated stream of vaccine through a small nozzle.

The MucoJet is needle-free (and thus virtually painless) and may also be able to address viruses more effectively than conventional techniques, according to Kiana Aran, a professor of mechanical and bioengineering who developed the MucoJet while working in Liepmann’s lab.

“The majority of modern vaccines are injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously, although the majority of pathogens actually access the body via the mucosal surfaces,” she told Digital Trends. A few vaccines are administered through the mucosal surfaces — including oral polio and rotavirus vaccine but, Aran said, these have limited safety and utility since they contain live viral components. With MucoJet, the researchers think they may be able to design safer and more effective mucosal vaccines.

So far, the researchers have demonstrated a proof of concept, successfully delivering vaccine-size molecules to cells in the mouths of animals. A paper describing the device was published last week in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Future research will entail testing the MucoJet on larger animals, such as monkeys and pigs. The researchers think the product may come to market in the next five to ten years.

Amazon may be looking to enter the wearable space. According to a new report, Amazon is looking into building a wearable device that can track a user's emotions, which would be a first for a fitness-tracking device.

If you’ve always fancied a smart display, but you need an Android tablet as well, then the Lenovo Smart Tab P10 could be the affordable device you’ve been dreaming of. Yet obsolete software and mediocre performance hold it back.

Where does Honor go after the Honor View 20, the best device it has ever made? The answer is the Honor 20 Pro, which takes what made the View 20 great, and then improves on it by adding more camera lenses and shrinking the size.

As the smartphone industry marches toward a bezel-less future, we compare the shrinking bezels on the latest and greatest devices. Find out which manufacturers have the smallest bezels on their smartphone as we compare them side by side.

Healthy people are signing up for treatments that are typically saved for patients stuck in hospital beds. Known as nutrient IV therapy, the treatment entails pumping vitamins, minerals, and fluids directly into the bloodstream, bypassing…

On this episode of DT Live, we discuss the ongoing Huawei saga, Amazon’s social games for workers, Ford's partnership with a robotics company, the Starlink satellite launch, Pac-Man’s birthday, and more.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company has just been awarded a $48.6 million contract by Las Vegas to build a high-speed transportation system beneath the city’s enormous convention center, and it could be ready by early 2020.

Airbus has given us the first look inside its single-seat flying taxi. The absence of controls in the Vahana electric aircraft is a reflection of its autonomous capabilities, so you can just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft's mission to drop a reflective marker on the surface of asteroid Ryugu has been aborted. The Japanese team was considering a second touchdown on the asteroid to collect more materials, but this now seems unlikely.